Hygieia,

                     from my Klimt series, a range of shoes inspired by the Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) portraits of elaborately dressed Austrian society women. The figure of Hygieia is a detail from a much larger painting destroyed during WWII.  She is the goddess of Health and stands with the Aesculapian snake around her arm and the cup of Lethe in her hand. These shoes reflect both her ornate red robe and the dark headdress which are decorated with stylised gold patterns.  The shape of the shoe is based on those made by the Italian shoemaker Pietro Yantorny (1874-1936), the self-proclaimed "most expensive shoemaker in the world" who created shoes only for the wealthiest women.